Security

Saturday, July 05, 2008

A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson and RooseveltThe formidable mises.org via LRC on one of its books, which takes on common knowledge with facts and opinions familiar to readers of this blog: the real economic (and thus power) reason for the US Civil War, how (but it doesn’t say why here) Wilson tricked Americans into World War I, which most people sensibly opposed at first, and FDR World War II, mentioning the Morgan and Rockefeller groups’ interest in a British victory although Roosevelt effectively and perhaps intentionally destroyed British power by so doing. (One of Pat Buchanan’s points about the not-so-great Churchill: betraying the German resistance, pushing the Americans into war and helping the Soviets were all self-destructive yet he’s still considered a hero.)

Trying to put to rest the received opinion/pseudo-history simultaneously believed by many of great father Abraham fighting to free the slaves, of the treacherous Huns and of the sneaky Japs wanting to take over America.

Much like the rot about Saddam Hussein, blamed by insinuation and bigotry (‘they’re all alike’) for an attack he was nothing to do with.

When big countries do this it’s no different really from Galtieri and the junta seizing the Falklands, trying to reinforce power at home. Only when they do it many more people get hurt and with longer-lasting consequences/harm.

The government of the United States depended at that time for its revenue principally on tariffs. These operated to the disadvantage of the South, a largely agricultural area, which had to pay high prices for imports. Tariffs redistributed wealth from the South to the North.

By seceding, the South threatened this entire system. By instituting a free-trade zone — or at least by drastically undercutting Northern tariffs — the South could divert the bulk of international trade to Southern ports; Northern business would be struck a severe blow and the federal government compelled to seek an alternative system of revenue. Lincoln, a firm believer in tariffs, was determined to prevent this from happening.

Additionally, he refused to receive the Confederate commissioners sent to negotiate such matters as the sale of federal property in the states that had seceded.

Gotta keep collecting those duties and imposts at the port of Charleston. So... send arms to Fort Sumter, knowing it will provoke a Confederate attack.

Woodrow Wilson’s insistence on American entry into World War I needlessly prolonged an already immensely costly war, and the evils of Nazism and Communism stem directly from the collapse of the traditional European order that the war brought about.

The facts about the Lusitania and Pearl Harbor are well known to my longtime readers.

The ship had been built to carry arms and was in fact carrying munitions when the Germans sank it. Wilson was fully aware of this yet refused to issue a warning to American passengers to avoid the ship. Wilson treated the sinking as an unprovoked attack on a civilian liner and used grief over the loss of American lives to incite anti-German sentiment.

World War II might therefore be considered, from one point of view, as a coalition war: the Morgans got their war in Europe, the Rockefellers theirs in Asia.

— Murray Rothbard

[FDR] sought to provoke a Japanese attack. He knew that Germany, as Japan’s Axis Pact ally, would enter the war on Japan’s side if he were successful in his scheme. Roosevelt accordingly adopted an intransigent policy toward the Japanese; when they would not meet his terms, he cut off oil exports to Japan and eventually froze Japanese assets in the United States.

Like such earlier revisionists as George Morgenstern, Harry Elmer Barnes, and Charles Beard, Denson holds that the Roosevelt Administration deliberately withheld information from the military commanders at Pearl Harbor indicating that a Japanese attack was imminent.

They were scapegoated for the attack and fired. Then-insider Douglas MacArthur’s forces similarly were decimated yet he got off scot-free and a few months later even got a medal.

Against the advice of the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral James O. Richardson, Roosevelt insisted that the fleet be moved to Pearl Harbor [from the safety of San Diego]. Richardson warned that this would endanger the fleet and be viewed by the Japanese as a provocation; for his efforts, Roosevelt removed him from command.

Admiral Kimmel received an order before the attack to send to sea all the most modern naval vessels in the fleet. Only relatively outdated ships [several WWI battleships like the Arizona] were in port when the Japanese attacked.